Florida Apple Snail

I have seen a whole waterway populated with them in Sarasota, FL. It’s the first time I had ever seen freshwater snails that big. There were so many, I thought it couldn’t be good for the environment and that they were probably invasive.

Pomacea canaliculata one of the top 100 (#73) most invasive species in the world. These snails can destroy senitve eco systems,and spread diseases to humans. Apple snails,once introduced are almost impossable to erraticate. many states have a Quarantine on such snails. These snails are best left in the Aquarium or better yet thier own native habitat . these large snails are very very bad news.The smaller florida species Pomacea paludosa as stated by paulzie 32 is a native to florida and occures natrually in many ponds. Its not smart to release any (pet) non native species into the wild.

Pomacea paludosa may NOT be the snail you are both thinking of. They are almost never seen in the pet trade, are a Florida Native, are not collected or bred commercially and do NOT do well in captivity. The RARELY ever breed in captivity if they even survive long enough. When they do lay eggs outdoors, they usually will lay up to (maybe) Fifty (50) fairly large white (to a very light pink) eggs about the size of a pea or so. Most of the babies will not survive to adulthood.
As for food, they only eat dead or decaying plant matter and some types of algae.
They have never become a pest anywhere they have been and are rarely even seen in "the wild" as they like the mud.

The snail(s) you may be thinking of, may be one of the several types of Pomacea from othe... read morer parts of the world that grow MUCH larger than Floridas native. P. insularum and P. canaliculata grow much larger. They also WILL eat just about anything. They will frequently lay 300+ small (about the size of a pin head) eggs per clutch. Some species lay pink some orange or some even green. One (mabye more) variety has babies that are carnivorous and eat Any other type of snail in the pond to eliminate competition. Even slower adults can fall victim to the young. These snails will make quick work of ANY and All vegetation in just about any lake in short time. This eventually kills the lake as with no plants to produce Oxygen, the fish die. With no fish or plants, birds stop showing up.
Some are not legal to possess in the state or even to mail to many (if any now) states due to their aggressive nature.
Pomacea paludosa is a great addition to any pond in the state of Florida. They will not become a pest and if you ever do get too many, there's not as much harm in releasing them, as they are natives. But releasing any captive creature back to the wild always risks releasing a disease or parasite with it, so it's not recommended.